Intrigues as second term governors scheme for senate seats

Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu, and Assistant Editor, Dare Odufowokan, report that plans by some second term governors to retire to the Senate in 2015 is the source of political crisis in their states.

It has been confirmed that the ambition of some second term state governors to retire to the Senate at the expiration of their tenure in 2015 is the root cause of the political tension in their states today.

At the last count, over 10 of such governors are currently scheming to pick their party’s senatorial tickets in their districts, a development that has irked the present occupants and some aspirants, who had sworn to frustrate such moves, thus heightening the political temperature of the states.

In the northern part of the country for example, the senatorial ambition of at least six state governors has been a source of heated controversy and political schemings. The governors include Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State, Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State and Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State.

Others include four governors who have also been linked with presidential ambition in 2015. They are Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, Rabiu Kwakwanso of Kano and Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State.

In the southern part of the country, the alleged senatorial ambition of governors like Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, Liyel Imoke of Cross River State, Theodore Orji of Abia State and Sullivan Chime of Enugu State, has also became a major issue in the politics of their states, ahead 2015.

Since late last year, when some political intrigues in some states were first traced to the senatorial ambition of some state governors, party leaders, according to insiders, took bold steps to save the situation for the sake of governance.

The leadership of People’s Democratic Party (PDP), for example, had, sometime in February this year, declared its resolve to scuttle the ambition of second term governors elected under its platform and to stop them from picking the party’s senatorial tickets in their districts. Part of the reason for that resolve was the need to clip the wings of the affected governors, who had allegedly shown glaring disloyalty both to PDP leadership and to Mr. President.

Our investigation, however, confirmed that this move did not yield much fruits in PDP. This, according to our findings, was because the affected PDP governors ignored the party’s directive that they must rest their 2015 ambitions for now. They allegedly chose to disobey that directive, said a source, because most of them are directly involved in the prolonged political battle, both against the party’s National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and for the office of the President in 2015.

It would be recalled that since the 2007 elections, a number of governors across the political parties have been elected to the Senate after completing two terms in their states. This easily explained the desire of most of the outgoing governors to follow this political path. But going by the level of opposition presented both by the incumbent senators and other political forces in each of the states, it remains to be seen if all the governors will successfully fulfil their ambitions. For now, the political manipulations are intense and intriguing.

Babangida Aliyu:

When the news first filtered out that Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, a second term governor, was nursing the ambition of retiring to the senate by vying for the so called Zone ‘B’ seat of the state, it generated lots of brickbats among the opposition elements, especially among political opponents of Gwari extraction.

The incumbent, Senator Dhairu Awaisu, did not hide his determination to resist the governor. In fact, as soon as Aliyu’s intension was made public through the media, Awaistu quickly told newsmen there was no vacancy in the senatorial zone.

He lashed that if the report about the governor’s plans is true, it would then mean that Aliyu wanted to reap where he did not sow, adding, “It would amount to back-stabbing the Gwaris.”

Aside political opponents, there is also allegations that some top civil servants in the state, who have not forgiven the governor over their disagreement on the payment of the national minimum wage, have since last year, been mobilising forces in the senatorial district to frustrate the governor’s quest.

These challenges notwithstanding, Aliyu has remained economical with words over the matter, especially after he became prominently linked with presidential ambition of the north ahead 2015. Though his role in the quest of some northern political elite to produce Nigeria’s President in 2015 have since overshadowed his alleged senatorial ambition, The Nation learnt that the senatorial card had never been dropped altogether. It remains a fall back position. This explains why the political schemings have ever since last year remained rather intense in the Zone B district.

When the speculation became too much to be ignored, Aliyu’s first direct response was diplomatically evasive, “I have never stated that I wanted to contest for the presidential position, or any other position come 2015, but people are mentioning my name anytime they are naming likely presidential candidates,” he said.

This is not a denial of either presidential or senatorial ambition in 2015.

Godswill Akpabio:

Although the most widely discussed political topic in Akwa Ibom State today is the ethnic group or senatorial zone that will produce the next governor after the expiration of Godswill Akpabio’s tenure, our investigation shows that it is the governor’s alleged senatorial ambition that has further complicated the political arithmetic in the state.

The Nation’s investigation confirmed that the governor’s alleged 2015 senatorial ambition has become a more critical factor in the choice of his successor as Akpabio has, since last year allegedly endorsed a succession strategy that would first guarantee his smooth ride to the Red Chamber at the senate.

Already, it has been alleged that the relationship between the governor and the senator representing his district, Senator Alloysius Etuk, may have been punctured by the new realities. Before now, insiders said the two had very robust relationship.

During senator’s retreat in Akwa Ibom State last year, an event packaged by a committee headed by Etuk, it was observed that the two political leaders from the same senatorial zone avoided each other, a development sources attributed to the puzzle over the district’s senatorial ticket in 2015.

The Nation learnt that today, most of the governorship hopefuls in the state from PDP, are eager to see how the senatorial issue is resolved before throwing in their resources for the race.

Reactions of some critics, however, suggest that Akpabio’s men still have a lot of work to do.

Some chieftains of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the five local government areas of former Abak Division, i.e. Abak, Etim Ekpo, Ika, Oruk Anam and Ukanafun, who begged not to be named, told The Nation that the governor may not win the senatorial election even if he picks the PDP ticket.

They alleged that “the governor has only empowered particular set of people from Etim Ekpo, and may therefore not get the support of youths in the area.”

Describing Akpabio’s ambition as unfair, one of the respondents said “it would be the turn of Abak Federal Constituency to produce a senator in 2015,” adding, “the area has never produced a senator but Ikot Ekpene Federal Constituency has produced three senators: Ukanafun Federal Constituency has produced two senators while Ikono/Ini one senator, but none from Abak Federal Constituency.”

Gabriel Suswam

It is no longer news that Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State intends to represent Benue North East Senatorial District at the National Assembly after the expiration of his governorship term in 2015. It is also no longer news that his ambition is now tearing the state chapter of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) apart.

Already, the incumbent Senator representing the area at the National Assembly, Senator Barnabas Gemade, has described what he called the plot to draft Governor Gabriel Suswam into the 2015 senatorial race in his constituency as an act of mischief and conspiracy against his constituents.

Observers of the politics of the state say a contest for the ticket of the party between Suswam and Gemade, who is a former national chairman of the PDP, will be tough, given Gemade’s recent declaration that his second term is non-negotiable and Suswam’s determination to go to the upper chamber in 2015.

The PDP in the senatorial district is already sharply divided behind the two politicians ahead of the senatorial primaries.

While Gemade, a former National Chairman of PDP, enjoys the support of most party elders and functionaries of the PDP at the national level, the state leadership of the party and the youths are solidly behind the governor’s quest to displace the incumbent senator in 2015.

Given this scenario and the fact that Suswam was instrumental to Gemade’s emergence as senator in 2011, there is no gainsaying the submission of pundits that Benue North-East will once again be the hotbed of politics in 2015.

Liyel Imoke

Although he continues to deny speculations making rounds that he is nursing a dream to represent Cross River Central Senatorial District in the Senate after his second tenure as Governor of Cross River State, tongues are still wagging about Senator Liyel Imoke’s alleged plan to upstage Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma Egba, at the Senate in 2015.

If it turns out to be true, a senatorial ambition on the part of Governor Imoke will surely create lots of stir as the incumbent Ndoma Egba leaves no one in doubt that he still wants to continue after 2015 when he would have spent 12 years in the Senate.Sources in the state said while the two politicians continue to relate well within and outside the state in spite of the rumoured political clash of interests, their supporters are already bracing up for what many say will be a titanic political battle.

According to sources, Imoke, who represented the senatorial district between 1992 and 1993, when the late General Sani Abacha stalled the return to democracy, is being wooed by various interests in the district to enter the race for the senatorial ticket of the PDP in 2015.

“Some people feel he hasn’t had enough time at the National Assembly. Others think it is better for the area to put its best material forward. There are those who just want him in the senate because he deserves it. If all these interests succeed in prevailing upon him to change his mind and run, then a showdown is imminent between him and Ndoma Egba,” a source said.

Jonah Jang

There are indications that Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State will be seeking to represent the Plateau North Senatorial District at the National Assembly after the expiration of his term as governor in 2015.

Signs that he is eyeing a seat at the upper chamber became rife after he allegedly supported his former Chief of Staff, Mr. Gyang Pwajok, to clinch the senatorial seat last year following the death of the then incumbent, Senator Gyang Dantong.

During the October 6, 2012 senatorial bye-election that produced Pwajok, there were talks that the former Chief of Staff was in the race merely to hold the position in trust for Jang.

So loud was the insinuation that Pwajok had to constantly deny it. But mute was the word all the while from Jang who before then had allegedly told the late Dantong of his desire to replace him at the senate in 2015.

“As to the question of me standing in as a stopgap or fill-in, I want to say that to a large extent only God controls the future of mankind. Whoever is planning about tomorrow does not even know what tomorrow will look like. But one thing that is clear is that tomorrow begins today. And what we need to do today we need to do today so that our future can be better assured and we can be greater together and we can move together,” Pwajok had said back then.

Today, with the governor reportedly oiling his political machineries in preparation of a political trip to the Senate to represent Plateau North, sources say his relationship with Pwajok may have been strained as the later is no longer willing to leave the national assembly so soon.

Sullivan Chime

Until recently, when some posters in Enugu State, confirming Senator Ike Ekweremadu’s alleged ambition to contest for the governorship position in Enugu State caused a stir, reports that the Deputy Senate President and Governor Sullivan Chime has reached an agreement to switch offices in 2015 had been dismissed by many as a mere rumour.

This is because a zoning formula of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is alleged to state that the Enugu North Senatorial Zone, comprising of the six local government areas that make up the old Nsukka Zone, is expected to produce the next governor of Enugu State after Chime completes his second four year tenure in May 2015. Given this alleged formula, Ekweremadu’s ambition allegedly fueled by Chime’s plot to proceed to the Red Chamber, has become one of the most thorny issues in Enugu State politics.

The matter, according to sources, is not helped by the fact that the Udi born state governor cannot, up till now, be pinned down on the issue of succession although he promised, during his 2011 second term campaign, to hand over power to an Nsukka man if Enugu North Senatorial Zone supported his re-election bid then.

The tension in Nsukka area today is that if Ekweremadu’s and Chime’s alleged exchange agreement materialise, the zone would have been cheated. This fear is because Ekweremadu represents Enugu West Senatorial Zone, the same zone with incumbent governor, Chime.

Feelers from the Nsukka Zone suggest their determination to resist the alleged arrangement, a development that is poised to heat up the governorship election in 2015.

In the other states affected, the intrigues are also as intense. For example, in Sokoto State, just like in Enugu, there are allegations that Wamakko may have reached agreement to exchange position with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal. Although this is not yet confirmed, it has become a major factor in the politics of the state.

I hope the governors will not be too greedy to become the proverbial dog that already has a bone in its mouth only to lose it when it rushed to pick a more glamorous one glittering inside the river. Whoever tells them that goverors are better senators must be a joker. They will soon find out.My advice is that they should prepare to be confronted by EFCC agents instead of hiding in the senate. Chimaroke Nnamani, pls tell them: No place to hide.

ogundeji ayodele tokunbo

It is higher time this governor shuld realize that a gold fish has no hiding place.they wl surely give account of their stewardship one day.